Jump to content

Ship of the line hull internal red


MickE

Recommended Posts

This is the kind of colour although there are some variations in other pictures

 

Surprise-Gun

 

Did all warships have the wall painted red as there is another photo of this ship with the red just in the gun port, which I actually prefer,

 

even more guns

 

Cheers

 

Mick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

afair, when I last visited HMS Victory the red varied, in places, from Humbrol 19 Bright Red to Humbrol 153 Insignia Red

Not surprised, have you seen how much paint they needed? Humbrol couldn't keep up with demand and the bloke opening all the tinlets had to be pensioned off with RSI :fool:

1 hour ago, MickE said:

Did all warships have the wall painted red

Them's bulkheads, ships don't have walls 👼

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Were they ever painted red originally?

I say that because, when I was a kid my parents took me to see the Victory and the decks (certainly below decks, not sure about main, quarter etc) were painted red and I was told at the time it was to hide the shed blood of battle.

When many years later I revisited and asked of a guide why weren’t the decks red anymore? they told me, that yes, they had been painted for the reason that I had been told, but this was a Victorian fallacy which is when they were painted.

Just a thought? No idea about the sides tho.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, from about the mid-18th century the interior of the gun decks were painted blood red so when a crewman was blown apart his bloody remains scattered around on everything would not be noticeable. The area where the doctor did his surgery was also painted red. The galley areas were painted black

This is not supposition but based on actual orders

 

Don't go by the guides posted on the ship. They don't know everything. When I was last there none of the 6 on duty could tell me and no.1 which staircase to use to get to the Orlop deck. They didn't know what an 'Orlop' was or where it could be found!

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Red Ochre.

 

I have this set for a wooden ship kit that one day I might get round to building.  

 

https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=sherbourne&PN=HM-Cutter-Sherbourne-Lady-Nelson-Paint-Set-APS9010W.html#SID=339

 

From what I was led to believe, these colours have been specially formulated for Napoleonic ships.

 

Of course recent findings on the actual Victory have discovered that the well known yellow ochre was in reality more of an orangey caramel colour - and it has now be repainted to reflect this.

 

https://www.nmrn.org.uk/news-events/nmrn-blog/hms-victory-be-re-painted-battle-trafalgar-colours-after-210-years

 

So I suspect that the reality is that some of the interior was red but the actual shade is probably not known with much certainty.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I may extend this discussion a bit

One time I was at HMS Victory and shipwrights were replanking part of the port-side hull. Near the bow of the main hull, just near the forward gun powder store room

I got talking to two of the chaps about what they were doing

One gave me a piece of wood to hold

It was part of a plank of the inner hull. It was extremely heavy for such a small piece

The reason was that it had been painted with very many coats of red lead. The red lead coating was almost 6mm thick

One shipwright joked it was a wonder Victory could float with that much lead on its planking

Their problem was what to paint the new planks with

For modern health & safety they could not use red lead. Obvious to use just red paint, But paint soaks into the wood and unless you put on a lot you'll almost always see the wood grain and plank joints whereas red lead flows together and forms a continuous skin and covers these. Not needed today as Victory is in permanent dry dock but when it was afloat that lead paint on the inner planks helped to keep the sea water out

The old red lead on that bit of plank I was able to hold was dark red, like WW2 Insignia Red which tend to the brownish side

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 18/11/2021 at 20:47, Black Knight said:

Don't go by the guides posted on the ship. They don't know everything. When I was last there none of the 6 on duty could tell me and no.1 which staircase to use to get to the Orlop deck. They didn't know what an 'Orlop' was or where it could be found!

Many moons ago as a baby Midshipman I was a guide on board HMS VICTORY while I was on holdover (the alternative was watchkeeping in the Ops Room in Port Stanley).

 

My training for the role was to do 2 tours with a more experienced guide and then learn it on the job!  So yes, treat anything the guides tell you with a degree of scepticism.

 

I think it is slightly better now in that in the busy summer months there are no guides at all.  You get an self-service audio guide to walk around with which I was assured a couple of years ago had been put together by the curator of the Museum of the Royal Navy so I would hope was underpinned by a little more research than "just do a couple of tours and then you're on your own"!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...